Public-private group explores sustainable alternatives assessment

By Eddy Ball

In her opening remarks, co-chair Spencer described the economic drivers behind the growing interest in alternatives assessment among manufacturers. As her statistics made clear, how successful a company is at developing safer products from the outset will have a major impact on its bottom line.
(Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

Following her welcome and charge to attendees, Birnbaum, left, joined Dixon in the audience, where they had a chance to discuss the agenda. Several participants remarked afterwards that they were pleased to see Birnbaum show such a level of interest in, and understanding of, their goals for the meeting.
(Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

Greggs described sustainable product design as a whack-a-mole problem. “Every decision has trade-offs,” he said. But hard work pays off, he added, quoting from the second part of Edison’s famous perspiration and inspiration comment. “A ‘genius’ is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework.”
(Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

With his presentation of tools, flowcharts, and checklists, documenting the design process at chemical maker BASF, Uhlman demonstrated his in-depth understanding of broader implications, including detailed life cycle assessment, social implications, and total environmental and public health impact, in efforts to balance what he called the triple bottom line — people, planet, profit.
(Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

NIEHS provided much more than meeting space and hospitality during a Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI)
workshop Feb. 7-8, evaluating assessment strategies for selecting safer, sustainable alternatives to chemicals of concern.

NIEHS/NTP Director Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., gave opening remarks to the interdisciplinary group of technical experts from academia, business, and government. NIEHS grantee
Joel Tickner, Sc.D. a recognized authority in alternatives assessment and sustainable product development, presented the keynote address. Several NIEHS and NTP scientists, including HESI workshop organizing committee member Darlene Dixon, D.V.M., Ph.D., participated in the three working group sessions.

“We need to identify toxic chemicals before they reach the market place,” Birnbaum said as she began her presentation. With her discussion of the effects of early-life exposures on development and adult-onset diseases, she offered the multistakeholder group a public health perspective on lifecycle analysis of products, by emphasizing that unsafe products and chemicals may have negative effects on health long after exposure occurs.

As Dow Chemical Company toxicologist Pam Spencer, Ph.D., workshop co-chair, explained in her opening remarks, properly assessing alternatives to replace unsafe products and ones with unintended negative health effects is important in terms of profitability, as well as public health.

“It can take ten years and $250 million to research, develop, and register a new crop protection product,” she said, noting that only a very small percentage of chemicals proposed for agricultural applications ever make it successfully from the lab to the field.

Inspiration and perspiration

In her charge to participants, Spencer made it clear that she expected them to produce during the two-day meeting, which was equally divided between presentations and discussions, and the give-and-take of workgroups examining attributes and tools; decision-making and weighing; and data gaps. One important goal, she said, was the creation of short overviews for specific groups, and technical articles with more original data for publication in one or more peer-reviewed journals.

The morning of the first day included short talks by industrial consultant William Greggs of Soleil Consulting; University of California, Los Angeles law and environmental sustainability specialist
Peter Sinsheimer, Ph.D.; and BASF senior sustainability specialist
Bruce Uhlman. These speakers introduced several themes that gained added force with a keynote address by Tickner, a University of Massachusetts Lowell professor and a leading advocate of the precautionary principle in product safety and functional analysis.

“California is the million pound gorilla in the room,” Tickner said, as he described the social, regulatory, and economic pressures driving alternatives assessment today. Product developers are facing new, basic questions, including whether some products, such as fire retardants and dry cleaning solvents, are needed at all. Instead of looking solely at convenience and profitability, engineers are being called upon to determine whether a function, such as degreasing, can be performed as well by a safer chemical.

Safety can also mean accepting ambiguities, Tickner explained. “There’s rarely going to be an easy drop-in,” he said, “[and] we shouldn’t let perfection of the data be the goal. … Take action — that’s the bottom line.”

Lessons learned and a sober look forward

When the workshop reconvened following the breakout sessions, two things were clear from the group reports. On the one hand, participants felt they’d gained valuable insights from stakeholders with different perspectives on product safety and made significant progress toward their goals. On the other hand, there was a consensus that much more work remains to be done.

“We’ve picked the low-hanging fruit,” observed Procter and Gamble environmental toxicologist
Donald Versteeg, Ph.D. “The other work is more difficult.”

In her closing remarks, Spencer agreed, saying, “We’ve just scratched the surface.” But that realization failed to dampen the enthusiasm participants felt about their two days together. “This was an extremely successful workshop,” Spencer said, as the workshop came to a close. “I’m really excited that we’ll be able to take this to the next level.”

Among the stakeholders working to establish common ground for the public and private sectors were London School of Economics and Political Science professor of public policy on sustainability
Kira Matus, Ph.D., left, and Robert Dwyer, Ph.D., associate director of the Environment Health, Environment, and Sustainable Development Program at the International Copper Association.
(Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

During the final few minutes of the workshop, sustainability consultant
James Fava, Ph.D., expressed what seemed to be the sentiments of most of the participants. “We just hit the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “It was a lot of education for all of us.”
(Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

Like Birnbaum, Tickner had a marked influence on the working group and general discussions at the workshop. “Avoid paralysis by analysis,” he told the audience, but also warned them about the danger of introducing alternatives that could be as unsafe as the products they replace. “There is [also] a responsibility to make sure we’re not jumping from the frying pan into the fire.”
(Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

Reporting back for the Decision-making and Weighing work group, George Washington University engineering management professor
Royce Francis, Ph.D., emphasized the importance of providing guidance for making decisions with limited data. He said that smaller companies, especially, may not have ready access to sustainability professionals or the expertise needed to negotiate complicated tools for weighing considerations.

The Environmental Factor is produced monthly by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/), Office of Communications and Public Liaison. The text is not copyrighted, and it can be reprinted without permission. If you use parts of Environmental Factor in your publication, we ask that you provide us with a copy for our records. We welcome your comments and suggestions. (bruskec@niehs.nih.gov)